Dimitrana Ivanova,

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

''Petrova'' ( bg, Димитрана Иванова, 1881–1960), was a Bulgarian educational reformer, suffragist and women's rights activist. She chaired the

Bulgarian Women's Union The Bulgarian Women's Union (Bulgarian: ''Български женски съюз,'' 'Balgarski Zhenski Sayuz' \'b&l-gar-ski 'zhen-ski s&-'yuz\), was a women's rights organisation active in Bulgaria from 1901 to 1944. In 1901, the organisation w ...

from 1926 to 1944.

Biography

Ivanova née Petrova was born on 1 February 1881 in Rousse, Bulgaria. The daughter of a trader, she was educated in the local girls' school and high school for girls. In Bulgaria, women were allowed to listen into lectures at the

University of Sofia Sofia University, "St. Kliment Ohridski" at the University of Sofia, ( bg, Софийски университет „Св. Климент Охридски“, ''Sofijski universitet „Sv. Kliment Ohridski“'') is the oldest higher education i ...

from 1896, but could not be regular students there until 1901, and even then it remained difficult, as high schools for girls offered only six of the seven secondary grades required for university admission. Dimitrana Ivanova was denied a place to study law in Sofia on these grounds, but she became the first female to study education and philosophy at the

University of Zürich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

. When she returned to Bulgaria in 1900, she was employed as a teacher, which was at the time practically the only profession open to women (although until 1904, banned for married women). In 1914, she married the teacher Doncho Ivanov, but continued her professional life (the ban against married women teachers having been lifted in 1904). In 1921, she applied to study in the Faculty of Law at the University of Sofia, and was eventually allowed to do so, graduating in 1927.

Women's suffrage

In 1926, she succeeded

Julia Malinova Julia Malinova, née ''Jakovlevna Scheider'' ( bg, Юлия Маринова (Яковлевна Шнайдер)) (1869-1953), was a Bulgarian suffragist and women's rights activist. She was co-founder of the Bulgarian Women's Union, and served a ...

as chairperson of her country's leading women's rights organization, the Bulgarian Women's Union, which had been founded in 1901. In 1935–40, she was a member of the board of the

International Alliance of Women The International Alliance of Women (IAW; french: Alliance Internationale des Femmes, AIF) is an international non-governmental organization that works to promote women's rights and gender equality. It was historically the main international org ...

. She became a well-known controversial figure in public debate and was frequently caricatured in the press. During her tenure as chairperson, two issues was given much attention: permission for women to practice law, which was seen as an important symbolic question, symbolizing the right of women to enter other professions of the same kind; and the right to

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

. Bulgarian women gained a conditional right to vote in 1937, but they could not stand for election themselves if they were widowed, married or divorced. Ivanova was arrested after the communist takeover of Bulgaria in 1944, when all civic "bourgeois" organizations were abolished. She was released on the intervention of one of her contacts in the communist movement in 1945.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ivanova, Dimitrana 1881 births 1960 deaths Bulgarian women's rights activists Bulgarian feminists 19th-century Bulgarian people Bulgarian suffragists 19th-century Bulgarian women